Chapter 5
“Fred!” Angelina appeared suddenly behind Fred. He yelped and spilled his pumpkin juice, causing Lee to start snickering. “Oh, you dolt-” She vanished the pumpkin juice. “Friday. 5pm. Keeper tryouts. I want all of you there.”
“As opposed to half of me?” Fred questioned, while casting a drying charm on his robes. He also cast a tickling spell at Lee while he was at it, just to give him something to laugh about.
Angelina looked murderous, and Fred wondered what his brother saw in this girl. “All of you as in all of the team.” She growled. Fred nodded vigorously.
“Yep, I’ll clear my schedule. Oh look, there’s nothing on it.” He pulled out a piece of paper and began to jot down the note, but Angelina grabbed his quill. “Ange-!”
She ignored him, and wrote in large capital letters on his arm KEEPER TRYOUTS FRIDAY 5. Fred watched her, his jaw dropped. He glanced across the table to see Lee sharing his look. At least he knew he wasn’t the one going crazy.
“Ms. Johnson.” Angelina stopped writing at Professor McGonagall’s stern voice. Fred was certain she would be on his side on this one. “What, pray tell, are you doing to Mr. Weasley’s arm?”
Angelina looked up, completely unrepentant. “Keeper tryouts Friday Professor.” She said, sounding barely apologetic. “I’ve got to make sure he shows up.”
“And you decided to write on his arm for that?”
“That way, he won’t forget, or if he does, someone else will see it and remind him.”
McGonagall nodded slowly before turning to sweep away. “Carry on.”
“Wha- Professor!” Fred exclaimed. Lee was laughing so hard he was half bent over, and Fred was tempted to hit him with a tickling hex again. Except, oh wait, his wand arm was currently being held captive.
“There.” Angelina said with satisfaction. She dropped his arm, and Fred saw she had added smiley faces to it. How kind of her. “Make sure you’re there.” She snapped, before grabbing her bag and storming down the table to torment Harry. Fred spun on Lee.
“Load of help you were!” He snarled, trying frantically to make his robes cover Angelina’s defacement of his arm. Lee snickered.
“I’m not getting in her way!” He exclaimed. Fred was stopped from lunging after him by his twin dropping into the stop next to him.
“Seen Angie?” George asked absent mindedly. Lee chortled and Fred seethed.
“Seen Angie? Yeah, I’ve seen Angie. Why don’t you go tell your girlfriend that-”
“Oh, there she is. Thanks Freddie.” George patted his shoulder and disappeared again, Fred cutting himself off in disbelief.
Lee stopped laughing. “Uh.”
“Yeah, uh.” Fred turned back to his lunch sullenly. Lee peered down the table.
“Is that normal now?”
“Yep.” Fred popped the p, just for fun. Lee looked skeptical.
“Really? Because you two have always been like, basically conjoined. It’s weird that he’s always with her.”
“They’re dating,” Fred said tiredly. “I’ve heard this is normal.”
“No it isn’t.” Lee said solemnly. “Fred, you have to talk to him. This is weird. I’m weirded out.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Maybe Fred should talk to his brother.
Fred did not talk to his brother, despite Lee telling him to the next 12 times George ditched them for Angelina. Instead, he dutifully did his homework and his tax research, got detention with Umbridge for next week when she caught him sneaking back from the library one night, and showed up practically on time for quidditch Friday.
“Fred!” Angelina looked ticked. “You’re late.”
Fred glanced at his watch. “It is 5:02.” He said flatly. Katie nodded in agreement. “How is that late? That is well within the socially acceptable grace period.”
“There is no grace period for quidditch.” Angelina said darkly. “Potter’s not coming, so we can start now.”
“Why’s Harry not coming?” Fred asked Katie, under his breath because he didn’t have a death wish. Katie glanced at him.
“Where’ve you been, under a rock? He’s got detention. Has all week.”
“Huh.” Fred said, trying to think back to where he’d been all week. With a start, he realized he’d been in the library most of the time. Merlin, he was turning into Percy.
“Is Ron any good?” Katie asked. Fred startled.
“What?”
“What is with you Fred? I asked is Ron any good?”
“At what?”
“At quidditch.” That was Alicia, who was also looking at him weird. “Fred, you’re being weird.”
“I’m fine.” He was, just a little tired. “And uh, yeah, he’s good.” Fred winced as Ron nearly fell off his broom. “Usually better than that.”
“Yeah, okay.” Alicia sighed, kicking off into the air. “Come on, before Angie loses it.”
Fred followed hastily, and spent the tryouts trying not to visibly wince every time Ron missed a save. In the end, it didn’t matter, because he got the spot.
“The other two flew better,” He said softly to Alicia. Alicia nodded.
“Yeah, but one’s unbearable and the other won’t put quidditch first. Ron’s our best bet.” She patted him on the shoulder. “For his sake, I hope he usually flies better than he did today.”
Fred didn’t hope, because he knew he did. But he did his job as an older brother and hassled Ron all the way back up the castle, only leaving him be when Harry appeared, pale and looking freaked out. Business as usual with that kid then.
“Alright Harry?” He asked, grinning a bit. Harry nodded. “Detention alright? What’d she have you do?”
“Lines.” Harry muttered. George laughed.
“Just lines? Get ready to get bored out of your mind next week Freddie!”
Harry looked horrified. “You have detention with her?”
Fred nodded. “Next week. She caught me sneaking back from the library, which is the most boring thing I could’ve been caught doing. McGonagall probably would’ve cried tears of joy if she was the one who caught me doing that.”
“Do you have detention too George?”
George shook his head, looking guilty. “I was with Ange.” He said. Harry nodded slowly.
“Be careful.” He told Fred, very seriously. Fred blinked.
“Uh?” But Harry was gone. Fred turned and shared a baffled look with George.
“That was weird?” George said.
“Really weird.” Fred was about to say something more, but instead stumbled as Lee fell into him.
“Ron’s on the team! It’s half Weasley, more if you count Potter!” Lee cheered. Fred laughed, and forgot entirely about his detention. Wasn’t his first, wouldn’t be his last.
“Mr. Weasley, come in.” Umbridge opened the door to her office with a very fake smile. “Quickly now, we haven’t got all night.”
“Right.” Fred glanced around and wished for the first time his brother was here with him, no matter how upset he was with how much time he was spending with Angie lately. The room felt weirdly off putting, considering how much pink there was. He spotted a small table with parchment.
“Err, I forgot a quill.” He said. “Didn’t realize I’d be writing lines.” More like he hadn’t believed it. A professor hadn’t made him write lines in years.
Umbridge studied him. “Well, I wasn’t going to have you write lines originally, but that’s not a bad idea. Your brother, Percy Weasley, how is he doing?”
Fred was bewildered. “Uh, fine? I mean, not great, he’s still not doing well after the whole third task fiasco but-” Fred cut himself off suddenly at the gleam in Umbridge’s eye. He remembered Harry complaining about her, and how she was one of many who didn’t believe him. “Um.”
“Yes, I think lines will do.” Umbridge pulled out a long quill, that looked nothing like any other quill Fred had ever seen before. “You will be writing “i must not misbehave”.”
“How many times?”
“Until it…. sinks in.” Umbridge had a very scary smile on her face, and Fred swallowed. He really wished George was here.
“Okay…” Fred slid into the chair. “Um, there’s no ink.”
“You won’t need it.” Fred felt a chill shudder down his spine, and he carefully wrote out the first letters. A sudden pain on the back of his hand confirmed his weak suspicions.
“A blood quill, professor? These are illegal.” He was surprised by how strong his voice was. Umbridge glanced up from her marking.
“I think you’ll find I have special permission. But who would you tell? Your lying brother? Or the one that’s avoiding you? Or maybe another professor? You’ve made a nuisance of yourself Fred Weasley, I’m afraid they wouldn’t believe you.”
The worst part was she was probably right. Fred thought back to McGonagall letting Angelina scribble all over his arm, and realized she’d probably think this was a nasty prank, and not do anything about it. Umbridge didn’t know what she was talking about with his brothers, Percy would lose his shit and George would also be pissed - but Fred couldn’t risk Percy coming back, not with his health all weird, and George probably wouldn’t appreciate Fred being all dramatic about this and stealing his time with Angelina. No, Fred was pretty much on his own for this one. He took a deep breath and continued, ignoring Umbridge’s smug grin.
A bit later he glanced at the clock to find an hour had passed. Umbridge stood with a simpering smile. “Well, that’s enough for tonight.” She caught hold of his hand as he handed the quill back. “Yes, I think you’d best come back for the rest of the week. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.”
Fred realized with a start that she meant for it to scar. “Fine.” He snapped. She tutted her tongue.
“That’s another day Mr. Weasley!” She called after him. Fred slammed the door behind him. He hurried down the hall, and then sank onto the floor, breathing heavily. He buried his head in his hands so he could think. George could have no idea this was happening, not if he didn’t want it to also happen to him. Best to keep the kids out of it, and his older brothers were too far or too rash to do anything. Fred knew she’d keep on him until he behaved but honestly, behaving sounded boring. Much more fun to misbehave. He stared at where the words were carved into his hand with his chicken scratch and made a sudden, likely rash, decision. If Umbridge thought sneaking about at night was misbehaving, he’d show her what that actually looked like. Blood quill be damned.
“Fred?” Alicia was standing over him looking worried. He hurried tucked his hand into his robes. “Uh, are you good? Do I need to get George?”
“No, I’m fine.” He blinked. “How’d you know I’m Fred?”
“Because George is always with Angie.” She said flatly. “I’m still willing to work out a custody arrangement.”
“That would involve me having had custody of him in the first place.” Fred said dryly, accepting her hand up. “He is his own individual, if you’ll recall.”
“I know, it’s just weird not seeing you two together.” Alicia kept hold of his hand and stared into what felt like the depths of his soul. Fred shifted slightly. “You know, if you’re upset about it-”
“Please do not say talk to him, I get enough of that from Lee.” Fred interrupted her. He tugged his hand out of her grip.
“Well, for once in his life Lee might be right.”
“He hasn’t been before and he’s not about to start now.” Fred disagreed. He started towards Gryffindor tower.
“Uh huh. How was detention?”
“Delightful,” Fred lied cheerfully. “Just lines.”
“Really? Hardly a test for you.”
“Oh, I’ve got it for the next week.” Fred said.
“For sneaking out one night? That’s ridiculous.”
“I may have been a little short tempered on the way out.” Fred admitted. “At least it isn’t conflicting with quidditch.”
“Yet. And you’d better hope it stays that way, otherwise Angie might actually lose it.” Alicia shook her head. “Fred.”
“Yeah?” Fred ducked inside the portrait as someone stepped out of it.
“You’d tell me if there was a problem, right?”
“What makes you think there’s a problem?”
“It’s just- you and George aren’t around each other that much, and Lee’s great but he’s immature at best. I just want to make sure you have someone.” Fred turned to see a very earnest look in Alicia’s eyes. It made him feel slightly bad about immediately lying to her face.
“Yeah, of course I’d tell you.”
“Okay…” She shook her head. “Did you hear about Hermione’s plan?”
“The one where she’s freeing the house elves. Noble plan, that.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “The other one. Where Harry’s going to teach us all Defense.”
Fred gasped in delight. “No, what? Tell me more. Anything that’ll piss off Umbridge is a plan I want on board with.”
Alicia rolled her eyes, but told him about Hermione’s plan. Fred quickly ran over his schedule for Hogsmeade that weekend.
“George and I have some orders to pick up, or I do at least, but we’ll be there. Tell Hermione.” Fred rose, his hand starting to sting slightly. “Thanks Alicia!”
“Please be careful, Fred.” She called after him. He wondered how on earth she could tell that something was wrong.